Story and Photos by Tim Adams
Wisconsin race fans love IndyCar. That was very evident by the amazing crowd that turned out for Sunday’s race at Road America. Attendance figures are not announced, but the grounds were packed with fans. Sunday morning started out very cloudy and cool, but by mid-morning the clouds had parted, and everyone enjoyed a sunny day with temperatures in the mid-60’s. A welcome change from stifling heat and humidity.
Every off-season Road America has been making changes and upgrading the facility for the fans. This past winter the bridge over the carousel was rebuilt, new bathrooms constructed, and a new parking and viewing area was built at the top of Fireman’s hill. This upcoming off season will be a monumental one. The substantial change for next year is the entire track will be torn up and repaved! Expect all records to fall next year with the fresh pavement is use.
This year IndyCar was once again joined by the Road to Indy support series racers in USF2000, Indy Pro 2000, and Indy Lights. Vintage Indy was also in attendance again, amazing the crowds with the sights and sounds of yesteryear.
This year Alexander Rossi started on the pole. Rossi has made a lot of news lately by announcing that he is leaving Andretti Autosport for Arrow McLaren SP in 2023. Would he dominate the race and win like he did in 2019?
It turned out that this would not be Rossi’s day. The first 10 laps were mired by three cautions. It did not seem like we were going to get any laps under green! Finally with the third restart, the field settled in we were treated to almost 40 laps of green flag racing. Rossi was able to maintain the lead the first 15 laps, but at the end of lap 15, Rossi and 2nd place Josef Newgarden pitted for fresh tires. Newgarden was able to beat Rossi out of the pits and never looked back the rest of the race.
A couple of late race cautions tightened up the field, but unlike last year when Newgarden lost the lead, and race with transmission problems, he was able to close the deal this year and win the race by just over three seconds. In second place was this years Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson, with Alexander Rossi finishing in third place. The previous weeks winner at the Detroit Grand Prix Will Power saw his chance to win ended by contact with rookie Devlin DeFrancesco going into turn 5. The contact left Power with the front wing dangling off the front of the car. Power had to actually stop the car heading up the hill to turn 6, have the AMR Safety Team remove the wing, then refire the car and head back to the pits.
Thankfully after the first 10 laps the field was able to sort things out and have a mostly clean race to the end. Everyone in attendance enjoyed a fantastic race. As an added bonus the Indy Lights race that was stopped earlier in the day was restarted. It was a nice way to sit back and let the exiting traffic die down before heading home.
Since IndyCar decided to come back to Road America in 2016, it has been an absolute must see race in person. There really is not a better place to watch a race in the US. Tickets are already on sale for next year, see you there!
